27 mins: Within seconds of James Coppinger stabbing the ball past the home goalkeeper but see it rebound off the upright, Jamie McClen untidily bundled the ball in from around 12 yards. 1-0.

33 mins: The author was earwigging a witty aside from someone in front of him when the home side strode into the United half unchallenged, although all eleven players were between ball and goal.

Harry van der Laan was unmarked and ended up with the ball right side of the area, driving past Lionel Perez with the minimum of fuss. The striker had scored 30 times in the previous season to help Den Bosch gain promotion and return to the top flight for the first time since 1990  1-1.

Half time: Den Bosch 1 Newcastle 1

49 mins; Warren Barton made his way into the box before falling over in comedy fashion. The referee pointed to the spot as Barton grinned cheesily at the travelling band of Mags. James Coppinger confidently whacked in the penalty. 2-1.

Full time: Den Bosch 1 Newcastle 2

Ruud Gullit said:
 
To follow

Martin Koopman:

To follow
 

Newcastle began their three match pre-season visit to the Netherlands on Thursday night with a reasonably satisfying reduced pace workout against top-flight opposition.

James Coppinger played as a lone striker and, in the same way Paul Kitson and Jon Dahl Tomasson struggled previously, was in dire need of support. Carl Serrant (sporting what looked like a home perm) made some inroads down the left but was lucky not to give away a penalty on 20 minutes. 

Stephen Glass came in for some rough treatment as the game progressed, the Gallic back three of Alain Goma and Laurent Charvet with Franck Dumas as sweeper looked to have possibilities, while Andreas Andersson was back in the underwhelming form that he blessed us with last season……

Initial impressions of Goma - a £4.7m capture from PSG - were favourable, while a lack of fitness meant that it was difficult to gauge whether paying Monaco £500K for Franck Dumas was worth it. 

One unexpected new face was goalkeeper Erwin Lemmens from Belgian side Beveren. The 24 year-old as invited to spend a few days training with United and given 33 second half minutes here, during which he was seldom called upon but claimed a couple of high crosses competently.

Come the final whistle and it was inevitably the lone figure of Warren Barton who wandered across and applauded the travelling corner. One or two other players made vague gestures in our direction, but the rest (including the younger contingent) were away down the tunnel without further ado. 

That's symbolic of the club's attitude to fan in pre-season really - with the minimum information released about the games and the inevitable domestic ticket sale (this time for Spurs and Southampton) co-ordinated to begin when fans had left the country to follow the team.

Biffa